Mother and toddler son killed in shooting at Miami home, report says

Ever the proud mother, Ciara Lee bragged to friends that her 2-year-old son already knew his numbers and ABCs.

A recent photograph of the two shows Lee holding Devon Franklin protectively, both with beaming smiles.

A hail of bullets from a high-powered rifle ended both their lives about 1 a.m. Tuesday inside their home in the Victory Homes projects in Miami. "All she wanted to do was take care of her son and be a good parent," said Lee's best friend, Kendra Walker, 23.

Lee, 24, a state corrections officer, and her son were not the intended targets, police said. The shooter or shooters sprayed the one-story peach home at 630 NW 73rd St. before fleeing. Officers recovered more than 60 shell casings outside.

"They didn't stand a chance," said Lee's grandmother, Ella Saulsberry, 81. Lee often helped Saulsberry and had planned to spend Tuesday — her day off — with her.

"She was going to make it," lamented Saulsberry, who raised Lee. "She was going places."

Lee and Devon, along with the boy's father, Andrew Franklin, were sleeping in a back bedroom when the gunfire started. Also in the home: Lee's cousins Tracy Mitchell and Willie Mitchell, and her uncle, Tony Lee.

Tony Lee was shot in the right leg. He was treated and released from Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The gunfire awoke those in the household.

"I heard the first shot, and it sounded like it came from somewhere else," said Willie Mitchell, 45. Tony Lee, 49, also thought the shooters were aiming elsewhere.

Then Lee saw the bullet holes. He was already shot "by the time I hit the floor. I was just trying to get out of the way of the bullets," he said.

By the time the bursts of gunfire stopped, dozens of bullets had pierced the walls inside and outside the home. Police said the gunman or gunmen circled much of the structure firing.

Willie Mitchell said she crawled on her knees to Ciara Lee's bedroom. Ciara was on the floor, bleeding. Andrew Franklin, her boyfriend, was in the closet holding Devon. Willie Mitchell said she called Ciara Lee's name.

"She didn't say anything. She took her last breath. That was the end of it."

The victims said they had no idea why the house would have been targeted.

"They shot up the whole house," Mitchell said. "Window to window to window, on both sides."

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, police said the area is known for drug activity. Maj. Jorge Martin said the attack is under investigation as a possible "drug-related homicide."

Before the shooting, there was a dispute outside the home, police said. But they were not able to say whether the intended shooting target was involved or, when the shooting took place, if the intended target was inside the home.

But surely, mother and son "did not deserve to die in a blaze of bullets as they slept in their home," said Police Chief Miguel Exposito, asking for the public's help.

"It don't make no sense to shoot up a house with a 2-year-old in it," Willie Mitchell said.

At South Florida Reception Center, where Ciara Lee worked as a day-shift housing officer, counselors were available for the staff on Tuesday.

Lee supervised inmates in a dormitory. Saturday would have marked her one-year anniversary with the department.

"She is remembered by co-workers as having brought a bright, positive nature to a difficult and dangerous job," Warden David Harris said in a statement. "Those who knew her describe her wonderful warm smile and say that her radiant spirit always seemed to light up the room."